The accounting firm hired to audit the finances of the troubled Attawapiskat First Nation reserve in northern Ontario says there is little or no documentation for millions of dollars spent by the band, CBC News has learned.

The unreleased audit was intended to ensure that more than $100 million provided by the federal government to Attawapiskat between April 2005 and November 2011 was spent as it should have been.

CBC News has obtained a copy of the audit. The funding was intended for housing, sewage, education and other services.

In a letter dated Sept. 20, 2012, that was written by Deloitte to Chief Theresa Spence and copied to the Department of Aboriginal Affairs, that auditing firm says that of 505 transactions reviewed, more than 400 lacked proper documentation.

The letter says "an average of 81 per cent of files did not have adequate supporting documents and over 60 per cent had no documentation of the reason for payment."

The letter to Spence also says there is "no evidence of due diligence on the part of Attawapiskat of funding provided by Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada for housing projects and Health Canada for health-related projects."

Spence declared a state of emergency on the reserve in the fall of 2011, citing a critical need for housing.

Amid much media coverage, the federal government pledged to provide emergency housing.

Spence has been on a hunger strike since mid-December near Ottawa, demanding a meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Gov. Gen. David Johnston to discuss what she characterizes as "treaty issues" between First Nations and the Crown.

Harper agreed to meet with First Nations chiefs this Friday and Spence has said she will attend, but is not giving up her hunger strike until she sees the outcome of the meeting.

SAP

If this reserve is anything like what is happening in northern AB, money is paid out to people who never show up for work, and not a thing is being done about it b/c main office in Edmonton like what they see on paper ... that native people have those jobs (I can't mention exactly what organization/work).An office that employs 5 people plus a visiting health person and only the health person shows up for work. Has been going on for years.

It is very fraustrating for anyone dealing with native people. They always act like they are bullying or threatening you in some way to agree with them. It is like this hunger strike. Absolutely no need for it. Harper was having a meeting anyway that was scheduled to be held. So why have this emotional blackmail, I call it, it is senseless and not professional. I guess we could all say, oh, I want to see the Prime Minister, I'm going to go on a hunger strike. Well who in the hell cares. I mean if I was going to take that avenue to get the PM to pay attention to me, I'd be in some graveyard, I'd say. There is no way that any one of us could say or use this comment to see the PM. I don't care what office you hold, this is not professionalism and lacks leadership. I have never heard anybody that wins with this kind of idea. I don't remember anything happening in any such episodes that was successful.

The "hunger strike" is the biggest bunch of unfiltered bullshit I have ever heard of in my life.

Bobby Sands did not have fish broth, hotels, showers, or frigging tea.

You are reading this prediction right here: Spence will appear weak and frail at the upcoming meeting and may collapse or suffer some other fate so as to appear as though she has been weakened by her diet. And the CBC will eat it right up.

I feel that some within the INM movement are trying to distance themselves from Spence. They'd be wise to. She is a bully, the classic example of one.

If this reserve is anything like what is happening in northern AB, money is paid out to people who never show up for work, and not a thing is being done about it b/c main office in Edmonton like what they see on paper ... that native people have those jobs (I can't mention exactly what organization/work).An office that employs 5 people plus a visiting health person and only the health person shows up for work. Has been going on for years.

I know exactly what you're saying SAP. I have worked within Aboriginal agencies (where thankfully, the staff who are native are trying to put an end to all this crooked band members crap) and she spoke about this very issue. The social workers on some of these reserves do the exact same thing- it looks like this was the case in the Phoenix Sinclair story. In the end, the feds don't even ask for paperwork most of the time anyway- no regulations about what happens to a child in need of protection, no request for the worker's qualifications, etc. Basically, here's some money, we don't care, fend for yourselves. I'm not sure if this is the same reserve you are talking about, but rest assured it's more than one.

You are reading this prediction right here: Spence will appear weak and frail at the upcoming meeting and may collapse or suffer some other fate so as to appear as though she has been weakened by her diet.

This could well be the case, however I've been following this on the nightly news and notice that so far she is looking pretty "healthy".

In light of what the INM movement is supposed to be about, her hunger strike seems pretty hypocritical.

You are reading this prediction right here: Spence will appear weak and frail at the upcoming meeting and may collapse or suffer some other fate so as to appear as though she has been weakened by her diet.

This could well be the case, however I've been following this on the nightly news and notice that so far she is looking pretty "healthy".

In light of what the INM movement is supposed to be about, her hunger strike seems pretty hypocritical.

Of course she looks healthy. Booby Sands certainly wasn't walking off to have a hot shower after 20 odd days...

My point is that I believe this whole farce was manufactured, and that she will manufacture something else because she's an attention whore - and because she knows that so long as she has people looking at her that they are not looking at the abysmal state of her books.

It's called deflection.

Nish

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SAP

I'm sorry to say but it takes two to tango imo. The Feds are just as much to blame as those who squandered the 96 million. Handing the money over and not asking originally for accountability is the Feds downfall. This is happening on a very wide scale across the country and I don't think the Feds were never aware of what was going on ... they just didn't want the bother. They are raping our system just as much as those taking the money.

I'm sorry to say but it takes two to tango imo. The Feds are just as much to blame as those who squandered the 96 million. Handing the money over and not asking originally for accountability is the Feds downfall. This is happening on a very wide scale across the country and I don't think the Feds were never aware of what was going on ... they just didn't want the bother. They are raping our system just as much as those taking the money.

You do recall that when the Feds tried to put in third party management they were called racists, right? They did ask for accountability. One recent video article showed that one of the reasons the reserve had partially finished houses was because of the measures in place and the administration's ignorance of them.

It's a tough one for anyone. They do not want oversight but we have taxpayers who do. It's a political hot potato with the loser being branded as a bigot. Fair? Hardly. But the spin is what has ruled this issue for longer than we have been discussing it here. It only gets worse when idiots gain access to Twitter and the internet and can post their gross accusations online.

Nish

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SAP

I may be a jerk, but one of those idiots I am not. The problems stem from wayyyyyy back imo. The Canadian Indians totally missed the industrial revolution. Skip to when our natives were being resettled, which I believe was done in a small way by Catholic dioceses and then in a large way by our government at the time. Given land and money and told they could not own land personally and all that jazz ... Government at that time should have made stipulations which they did not, regarding accountability of money. Without leadership and re-education how were they to learn? As far as my own thoughts go, I don't agree with people being stuck on a piece of land, some which is not good for anything. Assimilate and work together. That was too much for the government back then.